President Obama came to Denver today to sign the economic stimulus bill.  He chose the Mile High City because it is on the cutting edge of green technologies he believes will take America into the future.  I attended because I am producing a story on the impact of the economy on public hospitals.  Stimulus dollars are going to provide relief for health care too.  The story is slated to air on HDNet’s World Report (http://hd.net) on March 24.  I was in the crowd as a producer of a documentary length story for television, as a photographer, a blogger and for the first time, a twitterer. 

It was a powerful convergence of journalism and social networking.  I was doing what journalists do, taking down facts and quotes for my larger story, but I was also taking photos for my blog and twittering in between.  Within seconds of sending out tweets I had people texting me to tell me they were following my posts.  When I returned home I saw that my blog had three times as many hits as usual.  A month from now a 30 minute story about how the economic crisis is driving public hospitals into insolvency will air but today I broadcasted 140 word stories (@vickycollins)  and was excited to discover that there was an audience for those too.

For more information about Vicky Collins visit http://teletrendstv.com